The fucking twilight

Trout goes to Florez to get him to go to the Forest with him. Florez, who is generally a creepy dude and prone to losing his head, says he will go but only if they go straight to the forest. He then locks Trout out of his house and Trout goes to find Shrimp to get back in.

Uncle Vega sens Rork to get Dino and they have a meeting. Uncle Vega talks to Dino about the stasis chamber he came out of and the facility. Dino recalls a cleared out facility with only minimal supplies left there. Uncle Vega decides to get information from the Maelstrom but needs Florez’s assistance so they set out to his place. Upon seeing Dino, Florez drops to his knees and starts muttering that he’s not worthy and something about a god. Dino convinces Uncle Vega to let him talk to Florez alone. Dino manipulates Florez into helping him remember a 16 digit number by reassuring him that he’s done this before and everything will be ok. Florez enters the Maelstrom with Dino and comes to realize that Dino is not a god. Dino gets what he’s after, the number, and Florez pounces on him. Dino pulls out his gun and shoots at Florez but misses. This makes Florez freeze with his back to the book shelf. Florez decides to take them both down chucking a grenade at Dino. At this very moment Uncle Vega opens the door to see what the shot was all about. Dino boots the grenade out the door with some hesitation and the grenade goes off before it can get all the way outside. The blast kills Florez, knocks out Uncle Vega, and severely wounds Dino. Getting knocked like that makes Dino forget the 16 digit code he just acquired from Florez and the Maelstrom. Dino chops Florez’ head off.

Dylan has been working on some walkie-talkies in his shop for the last few days and finally gets two out of four to work. He takes the walkies and heads over to Newton’s to convince him to go down to Tum Tum’s hold together. It takes some convincing and Dylan’s father’s compass to get him to go. Dylan talks to the guard outside the gate and gets TumTum to see him by sharing information about her daughters death. Upon hearing the story of how Peperin was killed Tum Tum freaks out and enters the Maelstrom and takes Dylan with. She sees into the truth of what Dylan said and breaks down emotionally. She gives Dylan what he came for, information on Matilda and the hold he’s running. She, enraged at the death of her daughter, forces Dylan to take her to Uncle Vega’s hold to get her inside without losing men. It is then revealed that she’s a brainer. Dylan is released and heads to the market to wait for the order to move out to Vega’s hold. While scouting for an escape route one of Tum Tum’s thugs who was following Dylan grabs him and puts a knife to his throat. Dylan says “Fuck This Shit” and makes his escape anyway taking a knife to the back on his way out.

Trout heads to find Seabass but doesn’t see him anywhere when looking in his lean-to. Instead Onion surprises Trout and knocks him to the ground. Trout can see Onion’s eyes are glassed over and being the intelligent freak that he is Trout knows Onion is under the control of Brainers. Trout opens his mind up to the Maelstrom and sees a woman and a man as well as Onion’s presence. A brainer come up behind Onion and talks to trout. She claims to be there because of Barker but that she is an enemy of Barker. (I missed the dialog that happens here and the consequential actions. If someone would fill this in.)

Dino runs out of Florez’s house. Vega’s followers start patching him up and bring him back to his own bed while Rork goes to get an Angel to do the healing.

Trout has taken over Omie and Thrice’s minds. Trout runs into Dino and Dino asks Trout to help him get the numbers out of Florez’s head, which is being held by Dino, before it is too late. To do this requires Trout to release control, which he does, and Thrice immediately attacks Trout. Trout pulls up his pistol and blows a hole in her fucking head. Dino and Trout access the information stored in Florez’s head and get the numbers that were stored there. Trout also gets a glimpse into the mind of Dino. Dino, no longer needing Florez’s head, chucks it right off the cliff.

Dylan escapes back to Vega’s hold to find all sorts of fucked up shit has happened. He goes to see Vega and finds him unconscious in his bed all bloodied up. He uses one of his Angel kits to patch Vega up a bit.

Trout and Dino get together and decide they want Uncle Vega’s help in rolling up a posse and tracking down Chin and the stolen narco stabs down in the forest below. They stroll on over to Vega’s, who’s just trying to get some shuteye after a rough day. “Forget about the damn stabs, they’re gone. I got more important shit to worry about. Come see me in the morning”. Dejected, Lost Trout and Dino hang their heads and retreat to their apartments.

Dylan goes back to the junkyard to clean up a bit, where his car lies in a smoldering pile of ash and metal. There he runs into (forgotten NPC name, we’ll call him Joe) who feeds Dylan some bullshit about doing some welding when Look came along and tossed a bunch of fuel at him, causing the huge explosion.

Uncle Vega wakes up the next morning, eats his breakfast, and looking to take care of some business, goes searching for his new lieutenant, Dino. Nowhere to be found. Finding him missing, he heads over to find Rourke. Also gone. Fuck.

Uncle rolls on down to the junkyard to find out what happened with the explosion. Dylan explains that Joe was doing some welding when Look sabotaged the joint. Uncle Vega, not being born yesterday, points out that there’s no way Joe would have come away unharmed if his welding sparks accidentally set the place off; he must have been in on it.

Dylan and Vega go on a hunt for Joe to find out what really happened. This takes them to Petra, The Fucking Whore, who says Look did not show up for his “appointment”, and that maybe she saw him heading down towards the market.

At the market, Vega and Dylan find Millions, the local small-potatoes gun dealer. Business is looking up, since he had just sold that semi-functioning SMG that’s been hanging on the wall forever. As it just so happens, he sold it to Joe, he explains to a bemused Uncle Vega. Millions is obviously not being straight with the hard holder, but he won’t give up any more information.

Just then, Dylan notices Look running out from behind one of the stalls towards the junkyard. Dylan and Vega give chase. As Uncle Vega follows him through the main entrance, Dylan tries to cut him off through the back way, as he figures Look is making for his truck, which he is. Dylan and Look arrive at the truck simultaneously. Dylan attempts to shoot Look, but misses badly, adding just one more hole to a bullet ridden truck, and Look makes it to the truck. As he speeds out of the junkyard, Vega tries to slow him down but, not being known for acting under pressure, fumbles with his gun. He is forced to dive out of the way as Look barrels out of town towards the south.

Uncle heads back to the compound to grab his best one-handed driver, (forgotten NPC name, call him Hook). Hook revs up his armored car, and in pile Uncle, Dylan, and Mimi, leaving Bar in charge of the hardhold.

They catch up with Look in no time, and Vega deftly shoots the rear tire of the truck, causing Look to skid to a halt while Hook cuts him off. Obviously shaken, Look surrenders and admits he’s been working for Rufe the whole time. He was on his way to rat out Uncle for hoarding the narco stabs. Uncle Vega, in an unbelievable show of mercy, decides not to kill Look on the spot and throw him over the butte. Instead, they tie him up with jumper cables while Dylan replaces the tire on the truck, and the whole party heads back to the hold.

Once back, Uncle Vega, looking to blow off some steam, heads over to Petra, The Fucking Whore. “Want to have a toss?” inquires Vega, to which he receives the reply of 2 barter worth of oddments. 2-fucking barter? Uncle Vega points out that he just traded all of his personal wealth to feed the damn hardhold, and he’s looking for a little gratitude, but that stupid ungrateful cunt is having none of it. Vega storms out, leaving “that frigid bitch” in the dust.

We dip into the backstory to see why Tum Tum is so pissed, and follow the aftermath of Dino and Vega's standoff

The session opened with Vega standing outside his hardhold. Locked out. The gate was shut fucking tight. His gang rolled into town with 5 new people they picked up in the wastes. They were found north, along the trade route between Numbmeal and Big River. The crowd got very upset with Vega about there being newcomers in town when there wasn’t enough food to go around in the first place. Vega, in a brain-fart type moment, told the crowd that all the food was in the holding and it was all locked up. The person who could get them in would receive double rations. This did not sit well with the crowd, or the newcomer, Shazza. She was promised food and she intended to get it. Her eyes clouded over and the 4 men moved synchronously towards Mercer and ripped him apart with their bare hands, then moved on towards Uncle. His gang stepped up and killed the four of them. Vega then pulled out his gun and demanded Shazza to tell him what the fuck that was all about. She told him, “You are going to kill me whether I tell you or not. You are just going to have to kill me.” He pulled the trigger, and that was that.

Dino jumped down from Trout’s balcony and looking over The Dark he opened his brain to the Psychic Maelstrom. He could see an energy flowing over the Night Mountains and down. Like a waterfall in timelapse. He could also see the same energy floating above The Dark. Looking to his left, he is able to see a small orange circle, must have been a half mile away, descending The Butte. Coming to, he realizes that he is alone in the compound and that he will need to figure out a way to come to peace with Vega if he is going to have any shot at surviving the next day.

We flash back to 3 months ago. Trout is eating his meal at the mess hall at Tum Tum‘s holding; Numbmeal. As he is eating, Rack comes up to him and whispers that there is a problem with Peppering. They head over to Peppering’s room to find the door locked. Rack informs Trout that it wasn’t locked when he left. Trout isn’t about to kick the door down, it’s not his style. Instead he heads over to find J.F. Sebass to see if he can pick the lock. Sure as the sun stands still, J.F. Sebass is able to pick the lock and they find Peppering on her bed, totally passed out (Reverse deja vu? Or post-foreshadowing?). Fucking Peppering and her fucking addiction. There are no narcostabs to be found, despite that Rack said there were some here when he saw her. Hearing footsteps down the hall, Trout and Rack make to leave down a side passage in the hallway. Just as they are about to leave, Peppering comes to and calls out to Trout. He hesitates and Tum Tum walks in and sees them there. She knows what Trout has been up to and has tolerated it for now, but no one fucks with her family. She confronts Trout about the narcostabs and who has been giving them to Peppering and insists on searching him. She finds nothing on Trout, but manages to pull out 3 used narcos from Rack‘s pockets. Trout furiously turns on Rack and throws him up against the wall, holding him by the throat. He forces him to explain himself. Rack says, "I did just what you told me to, give her the good stuff. It wasn’t my fault that she OD’d!" bang His head explodes in a red mist, covering Trout‘s face with blood and bits of brains. He feels the cold steel of her pistol nestle against his temple. "We’ve been friends for a long time. You should have known to stay away from Peppering." Trout tries to talk his way out of it, she isn’t hearing any of it. He can hear her pulling the trigger and jerks his head away, the bullet grazes his face, tearing off his right ear. Standing over him, she tells him to stay away from Peppering and if she finds out she is using again, she will kill him.

As Dino is looking around the courtyard he can hear sounds of fighting and gunfire out of the gate and then it quiets down. He knows he has to find some type of leverage so he can open the gate without Vega putting a bullet in his brain. He sees the pickup truck with 4 barrels of what smells like gasoline in the bed and drives it over to the gate. Then heads into the mess hall and finds some cloth, kicks over a barrel of gasoline so there is gasoline by the pulley system that is used to open the gate and yells over to Vega and threatens to blow up the gasoline unless they work out a deal for his life. Vega convinces him to open the gate and allow them in, they compromise with only allowing Vega in to negotiate. Dino opens the gate enough to let Vega in and slams the gate back down. Dino and Vega have a nice long chat about what the fuck is going on with Dino and eventually offers to wipe his slate clean if he agrees to take Mercer‘s now vacant position as Lieutenant. Dino agrees, although he is also beholden to Dylan for fixing him up, they head off to the barracks so Dino can get situated in Mercer’s room.

Trout wakes from being beaten and is tied up in his bed sheets nice and tight. He calls out for help and Onion walks in and stupidly asks what he needs help with. Trout patiently explains what should be readily apparent, he is tied up and he needs to be let loose. Onion can’t figure out these “complicated knots from the future” and gives up. Trout points out that he “has a knife, why not cut me loose?”. Now free, Trout ask Onion what has been going on while he has been out. He explains about all the above stuff, and that Vega was heading towards the mess hall. He asks Onion to go with him, but Onion needs to take a shit. After 5 minutes, they head there and can’t find anyone; however, Onion is “fucking hungry” and won’t move until he gets to eat. Trout gives him 30 seconds to eat as much as gruel as he can. He shoves mouthful after mouthful of this awful spoiled gruel in his mouth and then proceeds to vomit up all over himself. Disgusted, Trout makes him follow him to the gate where Onion last saw Vega. He runs into Petra at the gate and she tells him the real story of what happened, and that Vega went to get Dino situated. He can tell something is bothering her, so he asks her what’s up and they talk about Peppering. On the way there, Trout mentioned that Peppering OD’d and is in her room. Petra freaks out and yells at Trout that someone should have told her and that someone should be with her. She takes off.

These three have a discussion about the narcostabs and that Dino needs to get them. They decide to work together to find Chin and that Dino may have an idea of where she is. He explains about his experience in the Psychic Maelstrom and that he saw an orange dot descending the butte earlier that day. Dino is going to look into that, and in the meantime, Trout is going to try to open up his brain to the Psychic Maelstrom too. The only way he can do that is to have an intense emotional/physical connection with one of his followers. He sets off to find Petra to convince her to give up the snatch.

He finds Petra in Peppering‘s room. She is crying and she slams the door on his face, he opens it and forces the door open, knocking her to the ground. She is sobbing uncontrollably. "She’s dead you asshole!", she screams. Trout goes and feels for a pulse, sure enough, dead as the sea. He sits down on the ground and tries to hold Petra and she just beats at his chests, holding her arms down he cradles her as she breaks down and sobs. Using this as his gateway, he opens his mind to the Psychic Maelstrom and touches peppering’s leg. He is able to see what must have been yesterday. Chin is in Peppering’s room. Peppering is sitting on the bed looking sheepish as Chin is standing over her.

“It was a simple fucking job, you cunt! All you had to do was sneak into Dylan’s place and get the box of stabs!”, Chin yelled.

“He caught me! Don’t worry, he thought I was after ammunition, you are clear. Safe!”, Peppering pleads.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. Here. This should tide us over.”, she says as she sits down next to Peppering on the bed. She pulls out two narcostabs and hands one to Peppering. Peppering hungrily grabs the stab and plumments it into her arm. Relaxing, she lays down on the bed. Chin then takes her stab and sticks it in Peppering‘s arm, Peppering wakes up just enough to have a surprised look on her face before the second stab kicks in and she passes out. Chin then pulls out a third stab, and injects it into Peppering’s arm. She puts the two used ones on the table and leaves the third one in her arm.

First session, what a shit storm

“I didn’t want the sun to rise. I didn’t want the world to continue turning. I wanted the whole planet put into stasis until I could catch up.”
― Anna Sheehan, A Long, Long Sleep

Dino came out of stasis, where he had been for the last 50 years and wandered towards the sun. He was found following the stream towards the sun in the eastern territory by Chin. She brought him to Big River to see the closest thing they have to a healer: Dylan. Dylan was able to successfully stabilize him and heal the damage done by the stasis chamber. As thanks, Dino agreed to work for Dylan for a month with the stipulation that he has a day to figure some shit out.

Trout went to take Peppering to the mess hall for dinner but heard gurgling sounds through the door, opening it up he found her convulsing on the bed from an apparent overdose of narco-stabs. There were 2 on the table next to her and 1 in her arm. He cradled her and was able to find some charcoal to shove down her throat and stabilize her.

He carried her to the mess hall to see if Vega had any ideas what to do. Vega in a very uncaring way told him that she needed to sleep it off and look into where she might have gotten the narco-stabs from. Trout took her back to her room and went to see if Dylan had any idea where the narco-stabs came from.

Dylan answered the door and a very quickly an argument broke out between the two. Dylan was very defensive about him asking about the narco-stabs. Trout was able to read him enough to know that he was afraid of Vega and didn’t want to talk about it. He tried to force his way into the room and when he did, Dylan tried to pull out his 9mm and shot himself in the leg. Fortunately, Dino was there to quickly pull a narco-stab off the wall and take the bullet out. Healing his leg. During this process, Trout noticed a box of sealed narco-stabs and grabbed it and took off back to his room. Dylan convinced Dino that his debt would be paid in full if he was able to get the narco-stabs back from Trout. Dino agreed, put on his heavy combat fatigues, grabbed his assault rifle and headed towards the center of Big River.

As Trout stashed the narco-stabs in his room, Chin came in. She saw the narco-stabs and flew into a rage. She came at him hard and as she was beating him, he told her he grabbed them from Dylans Junkyard. She beat him unconscious. She then went to Vega in a fit to tell him that Dylan was sitting on a fuck-ton of jingle in the form of a fucking crate of narco-stabs. He grabbed Mercer, Bar and Mimi and headed towards Dylans Junkyard.

At the gate, Vega and Dino had their introduction. It wasn’t pleasant. Mercer immediately wanted his shiny assault rifle. He drew his gun but Dino was faster. At the standoff, Dino said all he wanted to do was get into the hard hold to go to Trout ’s room. Vega wouldn’t have it, and as Mimi flipped his coin, Mercer shot Dino in the chest. Dino then barreled through Vega as Vega took a shot at him and was in the compound closing the door before they could stop him. Vega sounded the alarm, calling his gang back from their salvaging.

Dino headed towards Trout s room where he found him lying unconscious, the narco-stabs nowhere to be found. He tied him up and went out the window to wait and see what happens.

Meanwhile, outside the gate, Dylan shows up and tells Vega that he has a way into the hardhold. As they were discussing the terms of getting Vega back into his hardhold, there was a loud explosion that rocked Big River coming from Dylans Junkyard.